DANTE'S SUBLIME COMEDY: PURGATORY: Chapter 33
CHAPTER 33: The Final Cleansing
“O God, see heathens in your holy places!”
The
seven Virtues chanted through their tears,
first
three, then four, joining this psalm of loss. 3
They paused when Beatrice, with such a sigh
as
Mary must have sighed at foot of cross
stood
up and glowing like a flame, proclaimed, 6
“Dear sisters, we must leave here for a
while
but
will return.” A gesture made them walk
ahead
of her, while we three came behind 9
until she turned her calm clear eyes on me
saying,
“Come nearer, brother. We must talk.
Ask
what you wish.” I was so far beneath 12
her holy state, my tongue tripped on my
teeth
in
stammering reply: “My lalala,
my
lalalady knows what I should know 15
mumuch, much more than me.” “Then start,” said
she,
by talking
sensibly, and not like one
stumbling
under a load of sin. Lethe 18
has washed you clean. You saw the vile dragon
break
my carriage, a giant drag it off.
Know
those to blame will not escape
God’s wrath. 21
Know that the eagle feathering my car,
making
it monstrous, then slave to a hag,
will not forever
have heirs acting so. 24
The birthday of a hero, sent by God
to
kill the giant and his prostitute
is registered on
the star calendar. 27
Exactly when and where I do not know.
Five
hundred, ten and five are numbers where
some
find a clue. Not me. Such prophecies 30
like Sphinx’s riddle, hide what should be
plain,
yet
when on earth again tell it to those
racing
toward death, for it will come true. 33
Write of the tree: what you saw, what I
say.
It
is the tallest tree, widest at top
because
God made it only for himself. 36
Adam learned robbing it is blasphemous,
dwelling with
Eve in Hell five thousand years
till Jesus let
him out. The latest theft 39
which you have seen is recent history.
But
now I fear your mind is like a stone
so
darkened that my words are dazzling you. 42
Remember them, though you don’t
understand.”
Said
I, “As sealing wax receives its stamp
I
am impressed by you and all you say, 45
but why do words I long for fly so high
over
my head? The more I try (alas!)
the
less I know.” “Which teaches you,” 48
said she, “that your science is as far under
me
as
earth is below a Heavenly star.”
I
cried, “But I have never left your side!” 51
She smiled and said, “You have drunk Lethe,
so
forget
how many years you walked astray.
Now
I will use plain speech you understand.” 54
The splendid sun stood at the height of
noon
(which
varies with a viewer’s latitude)
when
the seven maidens who’d gone ahead 57
paused on the strand of what at first I
thought
a
waterfall shaded by mountain trees.
Nearer
I saw an overflowing spring 60
whose waters were dividing in two streams
going
opposite ways like the Tigris
and Euphrates, reluctantly,
like friends. 63
“O light and glory of the human race,
what
are these waters?” I asked Beatrice,
who
said, “Matilda knows.” My other guide 66
quickly replied like one discarding blame,
“I’ve
told him both these rivers’ name and use.”
“His
memory is numbed,” said Beatrice, 69
“by novelties, but here flows Eunoe.
As
you know how, refresh his weakened mind.”
Gentle
souls gladly serve another’s will. 72
Matilda murmured, “Come.” She took my hand,
saying
to Statius, “and you come too.”
Reader,
if I had time to write much more, 75
I’d speak about the sweetness of the stream
I
tasted then. I thirst to drink it still,
but
first must fill more pages with the tale 78
of my big poem’s third, last, grandest
part.
Art
orders with a voice I can’t deny.
I
left the stream of Eunoe remade,
a pure soul fit to climb the starry sky. 82